


sex and candy

by josiebelladonna, nirvhannahcornell (josiebelladonna), xtinamoon (josiebelladonna)



Series: joeyrotica [4]
Category: Anthrax (US Band), Bandom
Genre: Biting, Dorks in Love, Erotica, F/M, Food Porn, Forbidden Love, Friends to Lovers, Not Suitable/Safe For Work, One Shot, Press and Tabloids, Sex and Chocolate, Slow Build, Slow Romance, Spanking, Switching, The Author Regrets Nothing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2021-01-25 21:54:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21363259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/josiebelladonna/pseuds/josiebelladonna, https://archiveofourown.org/users/josiebelladonna/pseuds/nirvhannahcornell, https://archiveofourown.org/users/josiebelladonna/pseuds/xtinamoon
Summary: “He had said he had taken a gamble, and here he was taking another one with me, summed up by that ace of spades bite of chocolate in between his fingers was everything to the other three members of our happy little party. I knew that since the night we crossed paths again he had worked from his instinct, from the very heart of the quiet place. But even in the midst of the tapestry of the dark night overhanging rural Pennsylvania coupled with the paparazzi hot on our tails, I knew things were about to turn utterly torrid between the two of us.”
Relationships: Joey Belladonna/Original Female Character
Series: joeyrotica [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1539070





	sex and candy

**Author's Note:**

> "Hangin' round downtown by myself,  
and I had so much time  
to sit and think about myself  
and then there she was  
like double cherry pie.."  
-"Sex and Candy", Marcy Playground (aka one of my favorite songs ever)
> 
> "Joey's sexy voice" 😏😘💜 #thejoeygirls #nowitsdark

_April, 1985. Oswego, New York_.  
“Hannah—check it out, baby doll.”  
I lifted my head from Joey's chest to examine the beams of golden orange sunlight radiating through the trees and the surface of the lake beyond us. I lowered my gaze to the drops of dew on the fresh green grass to the side of us. We had made love for another hour there in the quiet place, and I had dozed off there in his arms. Everything was so clean and crisp, and then when I stared straight ahead, I was met with his chest and his oval face, the latter of which was partially cast in dark shadow like the Phantom of the Opera; I never noticed that cute little dent of a cleft in his chin before. In fact, I raised a hand to stroke his chin and the smooth olive skin there.  
His deep brown eyes gazed back at me, digging deep into the tapestry of my being. His face never looked softer or more relaxed. His body was as silky and warm as ever, slender and yet decadent like a fresh warm skinny latte underneath my thick body.  
His eyelids sank low and his dark lips parted just a hair, but it was enough for me to inch closer to his face. That little piece of skin underneath his chin looked delicate and smooth, perfect for a sweet little kiss, or maybe a couple. But either way, I put my arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips, and then gazed into his eyes. Seducing and enticing me inside once again.  
I stared into his face for a second before I pushed a strand of hair out from his face. He tilted his head back as I did it, showing me his shapely neck and his Adam's apple all the while. I couldn't help but move my lips to his throat. He gasped and held perfectly still right there. I could feel his heart pounding harder inside of his chest as he breathed heavier and faster beneath me.  
“You've got the butterflies,” I whispered in between kisses. I kissed him right at the base of his neck; his knees shifted beneath me. I could feel him breathing heavy underneath me. I kissed him again on the side of the neck and he let out a moan as light and soft as the gentle breeze emerging through the trees next to us.  
“How's that make you feel, baby?” I whispered into his ear before giving him another little kiss, as light as a feather upon his soft skin. He didn't reply, but rather responded with a gentle groan through his teeth. He squirmed beneath me, but I had a hold on him. I weighed him down so there was no getting away from me or getting out from underneath me. His fingers rode upon my lower back and down onto my ass. He wanted to finger me again, I was sure of it even if I had my pajama bottoms in the way.  
“Bad boy,” I whispered into his ear, teasing him for even considering the very action. “You're a bad boy. Just for that—”  
I lifted myself off of his chest and opened up the buttons on his shirt so I was met with that smooth light brown skin. I lowered back down to his chest for a line of even more gentle kisses, each one coaxed a light groan from him. I reached his waist and that little bit of hair growing around his belly button. I pressed my lips to the skin but I left them relaxed for a lazy type of kiss right on his stomach. Keeping my mouth there, I opened my lips so my teeth pressed against his skin.  
“What're you doing?” he blurted out in a broken voice. “What—”  
Ever so gently, careful not to hurt him, I ground the edges of my teeth upon his skin. He gasped even when I persisted. After a couple of light nibbles from him, I lifted my mouth for a light sucking of his skin. His chest heaved some more. I slipped out the tip of my tongue onto the same spot.  
He writhed underneath me but I kept at it. I nibbled again, this time a little bit more on the firm side. He gasped again but followed it up with a light moan from his throat. I sucked on his skin again, and I sucked a little bit longer than before. I soon puckered my lips for a kiss on the spot, and then gritted my teeth again for another light nibble.  
“Okay—” he grunted out, his chest heaving even harder as if he had been running a marathon. “Okay—this is—this is getting really hot—oh—oh shit—” I opened my mouth again, this time for another lush licking of his skin. He really loved that.  
“Hey—Hey—okay, okay—Hannah—Hannah, babe—fucking hell!” He burst out laughing and followed it up with a low, guttural moan, so loud that he could perhaps wake the neighbors nearby. I nibbled on him again before giving him another light kiss followed by another nibble. Joey groaned again: he had to be coming any time now, if not the next time I nibbled on his skin. I licked him again, like I would with a French kiss, and I felt something firm underneath my chest.  
“Think I better stop now,” I teased him, retracting my tongue.  
“I can't—I can't—I fucking—fuck—Jesus—” Out of breath but hot and bothered nonetheless, I watched his whole body relax right there underneath me. He lay the back of his head against the branch behind him and closed his eyes.  
“—fucking shit. That was... that was...”  
“Sexy?” I filled in for him.  
“Fucking... fuck—” He could hardly speak. I had rendered my boy to a sputtering, stuttering hot mess of a human.  
“Sexy?” I repeated.  
“—Jesus, that was hot as holy hell. That was... that was unreal. Being down there by my groceries added something else to it, too.”  
I bowed my head to plant a couple of kisses right on the bright red mark I had left there on his skin next to his belly button. I lay a hand on the ground next to his hip while I lifted my other hand to caress his belly button.  
“Yeah, it's pretty hot down there isn't it?” he asked him, still breathing heavy.  
“You have such a beautiful belly. God, it's like silk. The finest silk crafted from the heart of Italy made even more toothsome from spending some time in the Iroquois nation. As smooth and delicate as melted butter upon my tongue. I feel kinda bad for biting you.”  
“Wha—What?” He ran his fingers through his bangs and the hair on the side of his head.  
“Oh, you know.” I picked myself off of his thighs to free his erection and let his thighs relax without the weight of me on top of them. I returned my fingers to his waist and right where I bit him. “You've got such a gorgeous tummy and I have to admit... I feel bad. I've been bad, Joey. So bad. I bit your beautiful body.”  
The heaving in his chest eased up as he lifted himself up on his elbows. I thought of stripping off my top but his eyes burned right into me. His tongue slithered out over his bottom lip, the dirty nasty dog I knew so well.  
“Is that a challenge?” he asked me, his voice breaking.  
“Baby, it might be. Or it just might be the easiest thing for you to do to me ever.”  
He swallowed and I responded by climbing off over his thighs onto the grass. I suspended myself on all fours and I showed my ass to him. He had his fingers there. I knew he wanted a piece of me.  
Indeed, I felt his hands on the band of my pajama bottoms. He peeled them back down over my butt and my thighs: I felt my panties slide down towards my knees with them. I watched his knee slide underneath my body; his hand rested upon my back, then—  
SMACK!  
He spanked me with his open hand. The sound and sudden sharp sensation beckoned a pleasured squeal out from my mouth.  
“Do it again, baby!” I begged, trying to keep my voice low to not disturb the peace even more.  
SMACK!  
“Do it! Do it! Do it! Please, baby—baby boy—”  
SMACK! SMACK!  
“You—fucking—bad, bad girl—” he grunted out as he slapped my ass again and again. “Wanna hurt me? You wanna hurt me! You wanna fucking bite me!”  
Each spank was raw, sending pulses of pain right over my back, but it felt so good, that rush of blood and adrenaline surging throughout me. Each swipe of his hand, I rose higher and higher, and I could feel the top soon approaching me. So erotic.  
“I'm coming! Joey, baby, I'm coming!”  
“Oh, holy shit, yeah, you are!” I felt him roll me over onto my back and onto his lap; I yanked up my panties and my bottoms before I got any grass or dirt down my legs. I closed my eyes and felt my pulse race all over my body; I felt his hand, the one he used to hold my back, on the side of my head. Once I opened my eyes, he had bowed down over me for a kiss on the lips. His hair spread over the sides of my face as he opened his lips for a little extra depth. The tip of his tongue slipped in between my teeth and then he lifted his mouth from mine. Within the curtain of his wavy black hair, he showed me a warm and sweet smile; the golden light of the sunrise behind us accentuated the skin underneath his jaw and around his neck with a warm, gentle glow.  
“Joey...” I breathed out. “Joey... baby boy...”  
“Too hot for words, is it not?” he whispered into my face, his lips still that matte darkness in spite of everything that happened.  
“God—God damn.”  
“I should spank you more often,” he suggested, showing me a playful smirk.  
“Not if I do it to you first,” I pointed out, lashing my tongue out from my mouth.  
“Still bent on making my butt a li'l bigger?”  
“Very much so. I want to squeeze your little ass cheeks right now, but—phew.” I lay my head against the top of his thighs again, his thick sensual thighs.  
“What's today?” I asked him.  
“Uh... the eighth, I think? Oh, shit, your birthday's coming up isn't it?”  
“Next week.” I grinned at him.  
“So what you wanna do for that day?”  
“We can just hang out here. Or—ooh! I know! We can go down to Hershey and have a nice dinner and some sexy chocolate together.”  
“Go all the way down to Hershey? Damn.”  
“I've got the money, babe—we can so do it. We can so do it like how we do it again and again. Come down here and kiss me again—”

_April 14, 1985. Rochester, New York_.  
After my parents treated me to a nice dinner of their own back at our apartment, and I told them about the trip, but I didn't dare tell them about Joey, I decided to pack up some things for my trip down to Pennsylvania with him. I had called up Francine and invited her and Frankie with us to do the tame double date thing again, but she had told me they already plans together that week. She added that after the incident in the Hamptons, she didn't want to risk it again, as much as she liked Joey herself and as much as Frankie wanted to do something again. I didn't really know anyone else who had a boyfriend, and thus I decided it would just be me and him for the time together.  
I packed up my nice lacy underwear like I promised him for the weekend in the Hamptons. If nothing, the thought of it being the two of us there made me want to bring more lingerie along. I even went out that day for some new jeans with a lower waist because I wanted to show him a bit more of my hips seeing as we liked each other's butts.  
I started to think about what he had up his sleeve for my day; after that morning there in the quiet place, I knew there was more to this side of Joey than I had originally thought before. This side to him that ran down within him like a dark and twisted well, dark and kinky; kinky and tightly coiled as the hair topping the crown of his head.  
He still remembered to remain sweet and tender but he was devilish when he felt like it. That burning smoldering look in his eye, even when he remained idle, that very same that brought a tickling sensation into the pit of my stomach, accentuated by any time he lowered his eyelids, and puckered his lips at me, and tossed his hair back from his face. That same look that told me he wanted it, or he wanted me to have it. Even when his eyes grew large, like big dark marbles underneath those adorable eyebrows, he still had that look.  
I couldn't stop thinking about that tape recorder, either. Even when I changed it out to put in a new one, I had put a label on the front and wrote “Joey's sexy voice” on it in magic marker before sticking it in my desk drawer. I hoped no one would find it while we were down in Pennsylvania. A sweet boy like the one I had known for years need not be discovered like this. He was filthy, but he was my filth. After what happened in the Hamptons, I needed to do a better job of keeping it under wraps.  
I changed my mind and stuck the cassette tape in my underwear drawer, a place I knew no one would find it. I then turned back to my desk to my recorder with a new tape inside. I bowed my head close to the speaker and pressed the record button.  
“I never thought this would happen,” I said in a loud enough voice to hear myself on the playback, but soft enough so my parents wouldn't hear me; “but I have returned to my roots from childhood. Back in February, I crossed paths again with an old classmate, a guy whom I had made friends with in his time of need and eventually became his best friend with time. His name is Joey. Joey Belladonna. A half Indian, half Italian boy who's a little older than me, whom I met in the elementary school library of all places. And since rekindling our friendship two months ago, I found out he's in a band and they're making an album as I speak. But I have dug up something else about him. A side to him that I never thought existed before. With time and developing into the twenty somethings we are now, he has unleashed this quality of... I want to say, lushness to him. He's always been kind of impudent but there's something more here. Something deep, and sensual, and sultry. It's from this I find that I am—” I cleared my throat and hesitated. I felt it but I never actually said the words aloud before.  
“—I am intensely and unequivocally attracted to him. It's strange and surreal, feeling this way about my best friend. I never thought I would feel this way about someone before, much less him. But I am finding him to be incredibly...” I cleared my throat again as I felt my face grow warm.  
“...incredibly hot, especially since it's gotten rather visceral between the two of us. He's grown up and gotten so handsome now, but like I said, there's more to it. It's tender. It's alluring. It's a great wide unknown but weirdly familiar at the same time. And not to mention, it's very sexy. He's luscious, and irresistible, and flirty, and is horny even at the drop of the hat. He left a filthy recording on an old cassette tape when no one was looking, and I hope no one finds it because that's what brought us back together again.” I sighed through slightly parted lips as the warmth radiated all around my face.  
“It's at such a point now that it—it physically pains me to be away from him for very long, even if he's only an hour away from me back home, back over in Oswego. I don't know if it's pure lust and desire talking, but you know—I haven't seen him since middle school. I missed him and he told me he missed me every day after Mom and Dad and I moved over here to Rochester. An hour has separated us since we were pubescent, but it felt so far away. The other night, on the way home from the Hamptons because the fucking press was coming after us—the nosy cunts they are—we told each other that we love each other. I have a deep belief that he is really the only boy I have ever loved—aside from my dad, of course. But even after knowing him for so long, I—I have to confess that I really can't say for sure. We're going on a trip together tomorrow morning and I'll have to see how it goes between us in order to make sense of it all. I really hope this is more than just pure basal desire, especially since we've known each other for over half of our lives, even with the huge gap in between appearances. I hope this is indeed something more.”  
With nothing more to add, I pressed the stop button and listened to the playback. While on one hand, I was excited to spend some time alone with him, a decadent boy in a place surrounded by decadence and chocolate. I stared out the window at the illuminated skyline out there. An hour away, he was back at his place and I wondered if he was thinking of me, if he was recording his thoughts like what I did.  
Or was he doing something else? He lived alone in that apartment complex, a tiny flat away from the world, a bachelor pad.  
The thought of him touching himself to the thought of me actually did not surprise me. If anything, the notion of him touching himself to the thought of me brought a little smirk to my face. Stroking that thick healthy dick of his with those gentle fingers until he was squeezing out a bit of jizz... he really was Mr. Italian Stallion. The thought of his dick tickled me right between my thighs.  
The thought of all that hair around his head; his slender, absolutely gorgeous body, and that voice... that Italian American accent in conjunction over that smooth, but almost cartoonish voice…  
I licked my lips as I turned my head back to my dresser. I needed to hear him again.  
I took the tape out of the bottom of the drawer and slipped it back into the recorder. I bowed my head closer to the speaker to hear his voice. Every breath from his lips, every whispered word, every last part of it, crept right through me.  
At first I was unsure if he was being sincere, and I still had no idea if there was some sincerity here, but the way in which he spoke about his own dick and my tongue and my clit left me breathing hard again.  
“Joey...” I whispered once I realized the tape was nearing the end. “Joey... you sexy, sexy man. I want you.” I played the tape again to hear his voice. There was a small moment in the recording in which he let out this tiny, almost pained sounding whimper, like the ones he made the week before over the phone. It was a tiny moment and I had missed it all the times I played it back again, but hearing it felt akin to an epiphany. I did not hear the Mr. Sassafras I had known all these years: he was being dead serious. The sound of it brought another tingling feeling between my thighs accompanied with a tug inside of my chest.  
“Oh—Oh, Joey.” I brought a hand to the side of my face. I wanted to kiss him right there, but the hour between us stretched for another thousand years, at least until the morning when I saw him again.

_April 15, 1985. Hershey, Pennsylvania_.  
“Phew. Christ, that was longer than I thought it'd be.”  
“For real, though.”  
We had arrived in the sleepy little town of Hershey at about five o'clock in the afternoon, six hours after I had left my parents' place there in Rochester. I had done what Francine and I had done when we left for the Hamptons and I picked up Joey at his place there in Oswego at eleven thirty. We only stopped twice, the first time to fill up and the second time to take a detour because he swore he saw one of those reporters behind us in the rear view mirror. The whole trip down to Pennsylvania, he wore these big rounded mirrored sunglasses, or “highway patrol” glasses as he described them. Since we were alone this time around, he lay a hand on my thigh at every whim as well as flashed me a knowing glance from over those sunglasses, puckered his lips at me, and kissed me several times on the neck.  
A couple of times I had to lay a hand over his mouth to keep him back.  
“Stop it, I'm driving,” I insisted. It didn't help matters I chose to wear a blouse with a low, scooped neckline to show off my chest to him. I let him touch my chest anyway because we both enjoyed it.  
In fact, he could hardly keep his hands off of me, such that when we arrived in Hershey, he practically had lay his head down in my lap: I kept a hand on his coarse hair and stroked his temple with the pads of my fingers. When the shadows began to stretch long over us and the blooming lush landscape behind us, we finally arrived at the little inn I had reserved for us. Once we were in our hotel room, we both lay down next to each other there on the single queen sized bed with the plush black, white, and pink comforter with our hair fanned out from our heads. He had taken off his sunglasses as we gazed up at the ceiling over us.  
“Let's just lay here for a bit,” he suggested; I felt his fingers on the side of my thigh, and I stroked the back of his hand until he turned it over so we could hold each other there.  
“Sometimes that's all we have to do, baby boy,” I told him.  
“Don't tell me—” he began. I rolled my head over to look at him right in the eye.  
“Tell you what?”  
“You called me 'baby boy' again. Don't tell me—you wanna—?”  
“Well, maybe in a bit,” I clarified.  
“You sure? 'Cause you seemed pretty hot for it when you picked me up this morning.”  
“Well, yeah. I saw you sitting there on the planter wall with your legs spread apart.”  
“Bad girl, looking at and thinking about my schlong.”  
“You know what? I oughta just fill you with a bunch of milkshakes right now for that,” I teased him.  
“Milkshakes?”  
“Yeah. We are in Hershey, after all. The factory's not too far from here. I oughta just fill you up with chocolate.”  
He let go of me so as to roll over onto his side and prop his head up on his hand. His hips curved out in such a gentle fashion up from his slim beautiful body; his thighs only added to the slight but definite shape.  
“Have you ever had chocolate gelato before?” he asked me; I gazed into his face and those dilating pupils against those rich dark brown irises, dark brown like chocolate itself.  
“Gelato? I don't think I have.”  
“It's absolutely indulgent, honey pie. Smooth as silk and soft like velvet. I should spoon feed it to you if and when I get the chance.” He showed me a bit of his tongue from in between his lips, and he raised his eyebrows as a smirk crossed his face. He ran the tips of two fingers up my arm in a gentle caress. Meanwhile, the hem of his shirt lifted off the belt of his jeans to show me a tiny sliver of skin on his hip. I thought about the bite I left on his stomach, and then I thought about the tape recorder.  
“You know,” I began, “I listened to the tape you left for me again last night after I packed up.”  
“Oh, yeah?”  
“Yeah. I was... I was kind of missing you, to be honest.”  
He tossed his hair back with a flick of his head to show me his neck again, but this proved to be a useless move because he rolled over more onto his stomach so part of him lay on me. The tip of his Roman nose loomed over my face.  
“You wanna—?” he whispered.  
“Only if you wanna, baby boy.”  
“Your wish is my command, birthday girl.”  
“I want to fill that svelte, sexy belly of yours so full with lots and lots of pasta and chocolate, and then I want to make out with you under the stars.”  
He kissed me right on the lips and gazed into my face.  
“It's a deal, baby doll,” he breathed into my ear. “I could use something to eat anyways.”  
I rolled my eyes at him.  
“Those things are all you think about: food and sex. If you're not hungry, you're horny. And if you're not horny, you're always wanting something to eat.”  
“Well, yeah,” he retorted with a shrug and a roll of the eyes. “What did you expect from a Mr. Italian Stallion?” He smirked at me. “I like to keep my cup filled. Music, too, don't forget about that. I think about making beautiful music all the time, too.”  
“Was that intended?”  
“What's that?”  
“Beautiful music.”  
“Of course.” He winked at me and the smirk turned into a playful little grin. He kissed me on the lips once again, and then a second time, a third time, and on the fourth, he dropped his mouth right onto the base of my neck. I greeted his gentle caress with a light groan in my throat.  
“Hey, you did this for me in the quiet place—I should do it for you, too, birthday girl.”  
“Joey—” I whispered as he kissed me all the way down my chest to the edge of the neckline. Something about his lips there tickled me. “Oh, Joey—”  
“Yeah, you like that, don't you, sexy girl...” he said to me in that husky voice again. He lifted his head to look at me right in the face with those hooded, come hither eyes. “Let's get even hotter and feed each other some chocolate.”  
“Some sexy chocolate?” I corrected him.  
“Sexy chocolate, holy fuck, yes! Sexy hot chocolate!”  
He lifted himself off of me and, picking up his sunglasses in one fell swoop, pretty much rolled off of the bed. He ran his fingers through his black hair before he rounded the bed to help me up to my feet.  
I stood up against his body so he could look right down at the bare part of my chest. He smirked at me once again as he stared down at my bare skin, accentuated by that low neckline, pressed against his own chest. He lifted his gaze up at me, but kept his head bowed a bit so the edge of his bangs obscured his brow.  
“God, you're beautiful,” he remarked as a soft rosy tone bloomed in his face. I giggled at him.  
“So coy,” I teased him in a husky voice of my own. “Hang on, cutie boy, let me change into something a little more comfortable...”  
I slunk past him to my suitcase, and kicked off my shoes, and stripped off my jeans right there. I opened the case without laying it flat down on the floor and took out a pair of dark gray jeans.  
“Are those new?” he asked me as I snapped the case back shut.  
“Brand new.” I unfurled the jeans and stuck my right leg first, followed by my left. I hitched them up as far as they could go, to about a half an inch beneath my belly button. I fixed my shirt at the bottom and pulled up the neckline a bit to show him a little sliver of skin on my waist. He raised an eyebrow at me as he checked me out.  
“Oh. Oh yeah, those are—yes. Yeah, baby doll. Yeah, those are sexy.”  
“You've officially got a hot girlfriend now, baby,” I told him, slipping my shoes back on. “I thought you'd like these.”  
“I do—” I picked up my bag and he put his arm around me: his fingers caressed my hip.  
When we stepped outside and the cool evening falling upon us, I stuck my hand into the back pocket of his jeans to feel his butt. To think we had watched each other's hips fill out back in school and now we were finding each other's asses more than attractive.  
“Let's see,” I started as we reached the street corner, “I think it's over this way, if I remember correctly—” We crossed the street to the opposite corner towards a cozy, intimate lit cafe; we reached the corner in unison and Joey had stuck his sunglasses back on for the remaining sunlight upon us when I recognized the guy walking out of the front door, with his soft looking wavy black hair and his narrow face, and then I recognized the woman next to him.  
“Hey, Hannah and Joey!” he declared with a stunned expression on his face.  
“Hey, Frankie and Frankie,” I greeted them, slightly confused, as Joey and I stepped out of the way to let them out of the cafe. “I… thought you guys had plans?”  
“We do...” Francine replied with a small smile on her face, taking her sunglasses out of her purse, “I just didn't think you guys'd be here in Chocolate Town, U.S.A.”  
“Yeah, me, neither,” Frankie added, chewing a piece of gum and showing us a playful grin.  
“Why do you guys have your arms around each other?” she asked us.  
“Oh, I was just going to give him a hug,” I covered for us; I took my hand out of his back pocket and threw my arms around Joey, who in turn put his arms around me.  
“You had your hand in his pocket, though,” Frankie pointed out, the smirk never leaving his face.  
“Oh, no, I was just... wiping something off his butt,” I assured him, brushing my hand against Joey's back pocket. He flinched a bit but he held still as I made it look as though I was getting something off of the denim.  
“Nah—it looked like it was in his pocket,” said Francine with a twinkle in her eye. She and Frankie glanced at one another with smirks on their faces. I turned to Joey and he shrugged at me.  
“We might as well tell them, Hannah, babe,” he confessed in a low voice.  
“D'you seriously just call her 'babe'?” Frankie raised a hand for him. “Joe, you stud!”  
“Yeah, we're going out with each other,” I told them as Joey gave him a high five.  
“Score one for the Stallions, right?” Joey cracked.  
“Aw!” Francine threw her arms around me. “You know, Frankie and I were actually talking on the way over here—we thought you guys'd make a cute couple.”  
“How'd you guys find each other, anyway?” Frankie asked us.  
“Well, you know, Joey and I have known each other for years,” I explained, “since we were kids, basically. Back in February, I guess he came to my art show and I found out he was there. Next thing we know, we're rekindling things and catching up.”  
“Next thing we know, we're going a little further with the whole thing,” he added, putting his arm back around me. His hand slithered down the side of my hip, and I gazed up at him.  
“You gonna do that here?” I asked him in a soft voice as Francine giggled at us.  
“What's the matter? I can't touch my girlfriend?”  
“Well, you don't want your hands full for very long do you?”  
“We were wrong, doll face,” said Frankie, still with a smirk, “they're not cute—they're sexy. They're that sexy couple who can't seem to keep their hands off each other.”  
“How'd you find out he was there, though?” she asked me. I nibbled on my bottom lip.  
“It's—It's a long story,” I confessed. “And not the kind you could talk about at the dinner table.”  
“We were just gonna get something to eat here, too,” he joined in, his fingers resting on the belt loop over my hip.  
“Aw, man, we just ate in this little place here,” Frankie gestured behind him. “Pretty good, and pretty cozy, too.”  
“Charlie's in here, by the way,” Francine added as he put his arm around her. “So you guys can go in and say hi to him and—and everything.” She flashed us a wink.  
“I vote we call them 'Jannah', doll face,” he said to her, showing us both a big grin.  
“Jannah, or Johanna?”  
“Hey, if we go over to Harrisburg, it'll be Johannesburg,” Joey added, and the four of us burst out laughing.  
“We'll catch you sexy party people later, okay?” Francine told us with hugs for the both of us.  
“Of course!” I told her as I gave Frankie a hug; he then turned to Joey for another high five and a brief hug. “We're in the city of chocolate after all.”  
“We can have a proper double date now! Alright, we'll catch you guys later—” The Franks strode off in the opposite direction, while Joey and I entered the cafe with its dark heavy wooden floor and bare oblong light bulbs suspended from the ceiling overhead.  
“There's Charlie,” Joey nodded to the other side of the room at the small guy in the far corner of the room with headphones over his ears and thick bush of dark kinky hair down past his shoulders; from across the room, I could make out the dimple in his chin and the solemn look upon his face. But he raised his head, and nodded at us, and lifted a hand in a brief acknowledgement. I flashed him two fingers and he flashed me a wink and a little smile.  
We both asked for cups of coffee and big bowls of pasta, and once our food arrived, Joey made a joke about chocolate sauce being drizzled all over the noodles.  
“Unless you really wanna get kinky with it,” I laughed at him with a playful roll of the eyes.  
“Hey, after that hickey you gave me last week, I've been tryin' to make an effort to stay good.” He winked at me as he twirled his fork in the linguine.  
“Shut up and eat your dinner then,” I teased him.  
“I'm eating, I'm eating,” he begged, picking up a thick wad from the bowl. “Unless you wanna do me a favor—” He handed me his fork and I took it using two fingers and the tip of my tongue pressed to the edge of my two front teeth.  
“Good boys eat until their gorgeous flat tummies are nice and full,” I taunted him, sticking the fork into his mouth. He took the bite with his dark eyes locked onto me. I thought back to that morning back in February when I ran into him again, and then even further back to when we first met in the elementary school library. That deep stare I knew so well. It only seemed to deepen by the fact the two of us and Charlie were the sole people in there aside from the two waiters working that evening.  
I handed him his fork as he never removed his gaze from me. It actually made me a little uncomfortable as I glanced down at my bowl.  
And I realized he wasn't looking at me, but rather past me.  
“Is everything alright?” I asked him. He was careful to lean in closer to my face, like he didn't want to be seen there across from me. He swallowed his bite of linguine before speaking again, this time through gritted teeth.  
“Very slowly—look. Over. There.”  
I followed his gaze as I very turned my head behind me to look over my shoulder. I turned a bit more so I could better follow his gaze out the front window of the cafe. Outside, standing on the opposite corner of the street, was a woman with a camera in her hand. I recognized her from my art show back in February and when she saw me, her face lit up. I turned back around to face him and his stoic expression.  
“Oh, shit.” He nodded at me, very quick and minute nods.  
“What do we do?” I asked him in a hushed voice. His eyes darted to the other side of the room.  
“Let's see, Charlie's over there... hang tight. I have an idea.” He almost slithered out of his seat and crept across the floor to meet up with him. I closed my eyes when I heard the two of them speaking to each other.  
“Hannah, come on, babe—let's get out of here,” Joey called out to me.  
“Can we get these to-go, please?” I asked the waiter approaching our table. I scrambled to take out a few dollar bills for a tip and then I slung my purse over my shoulder, right as Joey and Charlie congregated behind me.  
“Yeah, after what happened to you guys and Frankie in the Hamptons, I'm not taking any chances,” he told us as the waiter helped me put our pasta in little white boxes. I thanked him and we ducked out the front door. But she halted us right in our tracks.  
“Holy fucking shit, will you get the fuck out of our way?” I spat at her. She asked me a question in Spanish.  
“How do you say 'get the fuck out of the way' in Mexican!” Charlie snapped. Joey then dodged past her to the crosswalk, and he and I ran after him. The three of us sprinted away from there; I ran blind even with Charlie right next to me. I knew the hotel wasn't too far from there, but I had no doubt Joey was trying to lose her, his long black hair flying behind his head and the soles of his Chuck Taylors clomping on the sidewalk like galloping horse hooves.  
“Hey, Joe!” Charlie shouted before he got any further away from us. Joey skidded to a stop at the next corner and turned to face us with a mortified expression on his face.  
“Little bitch can't run too fast can she?” he noted, out of breath as we came within earshot.  
“My car's right over here, though,” Charlie pointed out, panting.  
“Oh, thank fuck—”  
He fumbled the keys out from his pocket as we crossed the darkening street to the little black car parked at the curb.  
“But wait, there's our hotel!” I pointed at the little inn right there across the street from us.  
“I'll get you guys—out of here if I have to, though—phew, damn, Joey.”  
“That's what I get for being a hockey player,” he said in a single breath. We reached the front door of the lobby, and before stepping inside, I peeked over my shoulder at a few more tabloids coming for us.  
Joey led us back to our room; once Charlie and I were inside, he pressed his shoulder against the door panel and turned the deadbolt and slid the chain lock over in its slot. I sighed, out of both relief and from being out of breath. Joey lifted himself off of the door, staggered across the floor, and collapsed onto his side there on the bed. I ran my hand through my hair before pressing both of them to my hips.  
“Well, what're we gonna do?” I asked them. “I wanted to have a nice little trip with Joey and I can't see it being peaceful if this is all we're gonna get in response to it all.”  
“Yeah, Char, we came here because it's her birthday,” Joey explained to him, breathing heavy from running; and Charlie turned to me with a soft look on his face.  
“Oh, it's your birthday?” He put his arm around me and brought me close to him for a second. “That's really all I can do at the moment.”  
“That's okay,” I promised him.  
“I really don't know what to do, to be honest,” Joey confessed to us, gazing up at the ceiling with a blank expression.  
“I don't blame you, babe,” I told him, fetching up a sigh.  
“Well, since it's between you guys, I think I should give you both a moment—” Charlie adjusted the headphones, which he had lay over the back of his neck, before stepping past me to the door.  
“Be safe, please,” was the last thing I told him before he left the room and closed the door behind him. I returned to Joey as he hoisted himself up on his elbows and stared at me. He looked hurt.  
I frowned, even though I wished I could make this whole thing go away and it could be just the two of us, like the whole feeling of staying in the quiet place. His gaze moved off to the side for a moment, then he returned to me, as deep and solemn as ever.  
“We have to stop dating,” he stated. I gasped at that.  
“What! Why?”  
“We narrowly got away from her.”  
I gaped at him and his eyes growing large, two big black marbles opened up at me from underneath his bangs. I brought a hand to my mouth to keep myself from crying out, or from puking.  
“It's gonna get the two of us killed, Hannah babe,” he elaborated, shifting his weight. “Or it's gonna get Francine or Frankie or Charlie killed. We're both passionate for each other but we can't be together because things always light up between us, and you know—the tabloids are addicted to that fucking shit. They're worse than heroin and meth addicts who can't get their fix.”  
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. After everything I had heard on that tape, and after all of the passion between us while rekindling our friendship, it had come to this. My throat seemed to close up. The tears burned my eyes.  
“Joey—” I could hardly speak as I moved closer to him. “Joey—Joey, why—why us—”  
“I know,” he said, his voice breaking, “—oh fuck this shit. Come here, baby doll—” He threw his arms around me and held me so close, sitting upright there on the bed. His chest was still warm to the touch: I didn't want to let him go. I refused to let him go, especially when he kissed my neck again.  
“I will always love you, though,” he breathed into my ear. “The only girl for me. The only girl who's ever made me feel sexy and better about myself and this broken body of mine.”  
I wrapped my arms around his slender waist. I couldn't help myself: I reached up his shirt to feel him one last time; his skin as smooth as silk as ever, and his hips tantalizing, and the feel of his stomach as inviting as ever. He clasped onto either side of my face and he kissed me right on the lips, one last time.  
But he hung there, milking that kiss for a bit before releasing and kissing me again. He kissed me several times before he sank down to the bed again. I followed him down.  
He opened his legs to make room for me between his thighs. I ran my hands up his back and then around his sides towards his stomach. His fingers snaked through the roots of my hair for a moment, and then he reached underneath the hem of my shirt.  
I could feel him unhooking my bra. I leaned back to take off my blouse and lay it down on the bedspread next to us when I realized I was straddling his hips.  
“Let's do it, babe,” I told him.  
“One more for the road,” he remarked, unbuttoning his jeans. I clambered off of him for a moment to take off mine and tossed them over to the chair in the corner of the room next to dresser. I lunged down for him with my lips open for him. Joey lay flat on his back with his pants part of the way down his thighs, but it was enough for me to reach down inside of his underwear and right between his legs for his length. I caressed his flesh with the pads of my thumb and two fingers.  
The feel of his body underneath me was enough for me to feel warm again. I was in love with him, I knew it. I loved him so much that looking into his big deep brown eyes coaxed that sensation between my thighs again. He tilted his head back to show me his throat and his Adam's apple: I kissed his neck several times before he let out a soft, but agonized groan.  
“Don't leave me, please,” he begged to me, keeping his eyes closed.  
“I'll never leave you even if it killed me, my love,” I vowed, kissing the tip of his nose and then those sensual dark lips. “I'm yours forever.”  
He clasped a hand to the back of my head so as to hold me close to his own face and his neck. We both had taken off our pants but neither of us felt like having a little fun there on the soft bedspread. I wept right into his shirt, and his breath shortened with tears. I didn't want to leave him. I didn't want us to stop being sexy while staying best friends all the while, either. There was a point in which he sniffled and a voice emerged in the back of my head, one that sounded like my own:  
“They're gonna have to do better than that.”  
I snapped my eyes shut. I didn't want to see that woman again, or any of those people. I just wanted Joey and me to be in the quiet place again, the place where we both knew was safer and calmer: the both of us just two kids hidden away from the cruel world and huddled up against the cold lake effect winds. But then I heard the words again, and still in my own voice:  
“They're gonna have to do better than that.”  
In fact, when I heard it, I opened my eyes right as a tear balanced itself on my eyelashes. He fetched up a heavy sigh to keep the tears at bay, but then he spoke again.  
“I have an idea. It might get the both of us into a fuckload of trouble down the river but it can keep us together, though.”  
I sniffled as I brushed away the tear on my lashes.  
“I'm up for anything, baby,” I confessed, my voice muffled by his chest.  
“How 'bout—we make it look like we're dating the Franks. You know, you with Frankie and me with Francine. It's not ever going to be legitimate, but if we could probably talk them into it, and put up a facade of sorts, we can keep our passion here intact. We don't ever have to stop going out and having a little fun.”  
I lifted my head to look up at him: he lifted his head to look at me with a reddened tint to the whites of his eyes.  
“That's—” I began with another sniffle. “—actually not a bad idea. Like, we can switch it up and fuck around with the paparazzi that way.”  
“I mean, they will literally take anything seriously,” he added, wiping his left eye with the back of his hand.  
“We can—We can talk to them about it,” I followed along. “I mean...” My bottom lip trembled but I had to let out a laugh at the very notion of it, a nervous laugh. “...they're said we're a sexy couple after all. I hope they go along with it, though…”  
I put my hands upon his waist again, and this time, I stuck them underneath his shirt to feel his skin.  
“Your tummy is still so soft,” I sputtered out. “Soft and warm.”  
“I'm all full of pasta, baby doll. That—fucking tasty ass pasta. I still didn't get any chocolate, though, God dammit.”  
Voices floated in from the hall outside of our room. Charlie said something, and then I recognized Frankie's voice.  
“Speak of the devil,” I began, picking up my blouse and my bra, and climbing off of him.  
“It's totally a gamble,” he said, his voice breaking, and his fingers fondling over the head of his dick to slip it back into hiding. “Probably more so than when I left that recording, and I didn't even know if that was you in there. Like—I don't even know if they'll be onboard with this.” He zipped up as I tugged my blouse over my head and adjusted the neckline down around on my chest, and then I rounded the foot of the bed to fetch my jeans. He let out a heavy sigh as I put them back on and zipped up myself.  
“Well, they're out there right now,” I pointed out as I slipped my shoes over my feet, “so it's not like we have to hunt them down in town.”  
He sighed again and gave his hair a toss before standing to his feet. I reached the door first so I turned the deadbolt and slid over the chain in the slot. I swung open the door to be greeted by the three of them congregated right there right before us with serious expressions on their faces.  
“Fuck yeah, we'll do it,” said Frankie with a nod. “We'll do the switch with you guys.”

_April 15, 1985. Hershey, Pennsylvania_.  
Francine told me she and Frankie found a little candy shop not too far from the hotel, and lucky for us, we could go in there late at night when no one was looking in our direction. The five of us camped out in the hotel room until about ten thirty at night: at that point, Charlie assured us that the coast was clear and we sneaked out through the front lobby once again.  
It was a crisp, still night, silent and almost totally dark except for the glimmering lights of Harrisburg about fifteen miles away, casting a soft orange glow over the otherwise black sky. I walked side by side with Frankie while Francine strode alongside Joey; Charlie meanwhile felt like an escort, walking right behind us with his hands stuffed into his jeans pockets and his bushy hair casting a dark shadow over his pale face. To make it look real, I put my arm around Frankie's lower back and he did the same for me. Francine, on the other hand, set hers on the middle of Joey's back. Not too casual but none too platonic, either.  
She guided us over to this cute little candy shop on the corner which resembled a western type saloon on the outside but shone bright white light over us as we entered from the night. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Charlie's car parked adjacent to the corner; once we stepped inside, I noticed the side door on the other side of the room, meaning if we caught another one of them again, we could make a run for it.  
Lining the walls of the shop were wide, waist high wooden barrels, each of them filled with all manner of chocolate, in different flavors and shapes. Joey stood before a barrel filled with heart shaped candies, each of them wrapped in hot pink tin toil. He held one in between his index finger and his thumb; I approached him as he turned it upside down with the help of his middle finger. He glanced over at me with a raised eyebrow, and a lick of his lips, and a glance down at my chest.  
I knew what he was getting at here.  
He had said he had taken a gamble, and here he was taking another one with me, summed up by that ace of spades bite of chocolate in between his fingers was everything to the other three members of our happy little party. I knew that since the night we crossed paths again he had worked from his instinct, from the very heart of the quiet place. But even in the midst of the tapestry of the dark night overhanging rural Pennsylvania coupled with the paparazzi hot on our tails, I knew things were about to turn utterly torrid between the two of us.  
“You want some chocolate, Joe?” Francine asked him from behind a display full of large lollipops.  
“Uh, yes, please—babe,” he replied with a bit of reluctance and a nibble on his lip. She picked out a big lollipop before joining him at the one barrel.  
“How 'bout you, Hannah?” Frankie approached me with a genial look on his face.  
“Oh, yeah, of course.” I went along with it, like I would with Joey. I watched Frankie use the metal scoop there on the side of the barrel as I held a clear plastic bag open for him. After two scoops of diamond shaped chocolates wrapped in bright red tin foil, he leaned closer to my ear and gestured for me to come even closer.  
“Charlie told me to make it look really legitimate we should kiss,” he whispered. “I guess it was actually Francine's idea.”  
“Makes sense,” I replied; he gave me another scoop and hesitated.  
“How's that?”  
“Literally the perfect amount,” I confirmed, tying off the top. The two of us headed over to the register as Charlie picked out a big round rainbow lollipop for himself.  
“I've got it, I've got it,” Francine was assuring Joey as she took her wallet out of her purse.  
“Buncha cute couples here lately,” said the girl there at the desk; Francine weaved in between me and Frankie. He turned to me as I set my candies down on the top of the counter and took my wallet out of my purse.  
“You sure you got it?” he asked me, reaching into his pocket.  
“Of course, babe,” I told him and he winked at me.  
Francine and I both paid for our chocolates, and we even paid for Charlie's lollipop. Once I put my wallet back into my purse, and we had stepped away from there, I caught her giving Joey a little kiss on the cheek.  
“What is he, your grandmother?” I teased her, zipping my purse closed. “Check this out—come here, Frankie—”  
I put my arms around his waist and opened my lips like I would for Joey. I closed my eyes at the taste of his lips and the feel of his chest right up against me. Even though he was warm in his own rite, he didn't feel soft like Joey, but rather tight and even chic. I felt his hands rest upon my lower back; his hips brushed against mine. I was a mere couple of inches from his genitals. But we hung there for a moment before I let go of him.  
I opened my eyes to find he had shielded us with the hair on his side of his head. He stared back at me with a fierce glimmer in his eye for a moment before flashing me a wink.  
Frankie let go of me and that was when I heard voices outside.  
“Oh, shit, not the paparazzi again,” Charlie groaned next to us. “I see them coming—we gotta go.”  
“You guys have a good night,” the girl at the counter told us.  
“You, too,” said Joey in a broken voice. He led us out of the side door to the street and the safety of Charlie's car. I heard keys jingling and then his muttering under his breath about something.  
“Kinda hard to do this when it's dark and you've got a big ass lolly in your hand—”  
He was cut off by a flash of bright white light on the corner.  
“FUCKING SHIT!” Frankie shouted. There was more jingling, followed by the soft click of the driver's side door unlocking. Charlie flung open the door and pressed the button unlocking the rest of the car. Francine dove into the front seat next to him while Joey, Frankie, and I ducked into the back.  
Joey had just put his feet into the car and yanked on the door handle when there was another jingling.  
“—shit, God dammit, I dropped the keys!”  
I heard either of them there in the front fumbling with something in front of us. Pale yellow light from the overhead ceiling light cast over the interior of the car. Charlie ducked down underneath the steering wheel.  
“Got 'em!”  
“Turn off the light, Frankie!” Joey and I shouted in unison, and Francine switched off the light. More jingling, then the car roared to life. We sped forward down the side street into the darkness.  
“We're gonna have to make a little detour, you guys,” Charlie informed us as we hung a left down a narrow street. “We're in a small town—you know, it's not like we're in New York City where you can slip into anonymity easily. We're too far away to go back to Oswego and Syracuse, you know, it's not like we can get back there and lose 'em that way.”  
“What're you saying, Char?” Frankie asked him from the right of me.  
“Harrisburg. It's like ten minutes away, so we can get back easily.”  
I had my faith in Charlie as we wound our way to the outskirts of town. The headlights shone over a sign on the side of the road directing us to the highway which would take us over to Harrisburg.  
“But why Harrisburg, though?” Frankie demanded. “Can't we just drive around in circles and lose 'em that way?”  
“If we do that, they'll catch up with us way too easily,” Charlie pointed out, peering over his shoulder at him. “We've gotta blend in—”  
“Hey, dude, watch the road,” Joey warned him.  
“They're parasites, Frankie—we've gotta leave for a bit so they'll lose track of us—”  
“WATCH THE ROAD!” That had to have been the one time I ever heard Joey really raise his voice.  
“LOOK OUT!” Francine shrieked.  
“Holy shit!” he yelped out, but it was too late: we hit the person so hard that they rolled up onto the hood, over the roof, onto the trunk lid, and onto the pavement behind us. Charlie slammed on the brakes and we all nearly slid forward in the slick seats.  
“Hang on, everyone!” Francine declared. We skidded to a stop right in the middle of the street. In the glow of the headlights, Charlie and Francine gaped at each other.  
“Are they okay?” I squeaked out. In the dim light, I noticed Joey rolling down the window. The sound of rustling papers filled the night. The sound was followed by the guy spewing out something at him. Joey caught a piece of paper in his hand before it hit the ground. The guy said something to him.  
“Over my dead body, you scumbag,” Joey scoffed at him, pulling his arm back into the car. The guy said something.  
“Suck my dick, you little bitch—” He turned his head so the glow of the headlights shone back on him. He was about to tell Charlie something when the guy said something else. He returned to the window to hear it again. I couldn't tell what the guy was saying but I knew it was rude enough to beckon another scoff from Joey.  
“Yeah—Yeah, well, all you cunts can kiss my bumble fuck Iroquois ass for all I care—I'm taking this, by the way—step on it, Charlie.” He rolled up the window as we darted away from there and onto the highway. I glanced over at Joey as he held the piece of paper close to his face. Before I could ask him anything, he folded up the paper and tucked it into his jeans pocket.  
Within time, the streetlights of the bridge leading us into Harrisburg entered our view. Charlie took the first exit to the side of town, and we wound our way through the side streets, alive even with the night firm in place around us. I glanced over at Frankie and the golden light of the street bathed over him and his arm rested upon the top of the door panel. I glanced at Joey and the same light accentuating the darkness of his black hair and the narrow features of his face. I stared straight ahead right as Charlie took another side street.  
“Ah! Here's a coffee shop. We can hide out here for a little bit.”  
We parked at the curb before a small, bright lit cafe nestled in between a bar and a narrow alleyway; next to the alley stood a tattoo parlor which was closed for the night. We climbed out into the dark, slightly warm night for a bit of late night coffee. Francine and I stood there on the sidewalk while our three guys went in for us.  
“That was insane,” she remarked, adjusting the strap on her purse.  
“Yeah, I'll say. At least it was just another tabloid and not an innocent pedestrian.”  
“No, I mean, when you kissed Frank. That was—” She showed me a mischievous grin. “—that was nuts.”  
I shrugged at her.  
“Well, he told me to make it look legitimate, I had to do something like that. I guess it was Charlie's idea.”  
“Wow, that was quick,” she noted; I turned to find Frankie and Charlie stepping out of the coffee house with little dark green cups in both of their hands. Charlie handed me the one in his right hand. Joey held the door for an old man before coming towards me and huddling close to me even though it wasn't a little bit cold outside.  
“Cheers,” I told him, and we tapped the edges of the lids together before taking a sip in unison. Needless to say, I burned my tongue even upon blowing into the little slit there. Frankie, Charlie, and Francine chatted about something in front of us; she burst out laughing. It was as if the press never hounded after us, nor did we hit that guy. He lowered his cup and gestured for me to move in closer.  
“I'll admit it,” he began, “and Charlie agreed with me on this, too—seeing you kiss Frankie was pretty hot.”  
“Francine told me that, too. It was to make it look real but I guess it was quite the sight to see.”  
He showed me a little smirk before blowing into the slit in the lid and taking another sip of coffee.  
“You know that piece of paper I caught after we hit that guy? The one I put in my pocket?”  
“Yeah?”  
“It was a piece of notes basically saying that I'm cheating on you. Like we broke up and to get back at each other, we're dating our best friends.”  
I rolled my eyes at that.  
“I mean, really,” he continued with a look of disgust.  
“What do you wanna bet there's another one back there saying I'm the cheater?” I laughed.  
“I bet big time, baby doll. You know—” He stopped to scratch his nose with the side of his thumb. “I have to laugh at all of this.” He chuckled to himself as he shook his head and took another sip of coffee.  
“Right? It's like they'll literally come up with anything just for the fuck of it.”  
He smirked and shook his head again before returning his attention to me.  
“But you know what, though? And I was thinking this when we were in the candy store, too. I say we stay together, and really make an effort to keep it under wraps between us. Frankie and Charlie know about this now, and so does Francine. If our parents find out about this—which, I'm sure they will, the affair and our relationship will be all over the music magazines, and thrash metal garnering media attention now for sure—we can tell them it's bullshit.”  
“Of course. Of course.” I lingered closer to him as I put my arm around his slim waist. I wanted to put my hand on his chest but not when I held a cup of hot coffee. “It kind of is bullshit, too. In a round about sort of way. We're dating but we can totally deny it and be airtight about it now.”  
“We are in Harrisburg, too,” he pointed out.  
“Harrisburg—Johannesburg, actually,” I corrected, and he held me close to his body as he leaned against the bricks.  
“Johannesburg. Well, shit.” And he burst out laughing as we tapped the cups together again.


End file.
